machine tools

Machinery maintenance and repair can be expensive and cause unnecessary delays if your maintenance team does not stay ready. With preventative actions, however, they can keep machines up and move for a long time. Of course, there are some repairs that are inevitable. Age and use naturally cause some machine parts to wear down through time. But if mechanics see issues immediately and have a plan for repair needs, then your machines would be up and running again without having to slow down the production that could hurt your company.

Four Popular Reasons for Machinery Maintenance and Repair

1. Overheating machine — Machines are likely to overheat for many various reasons, but the popular reason is the lack of lubrication. If you are in charge of a machine maintenance crew, be sure to keep a frequent cleaning and lubrication time to avoid overheating.

If there is no leak, then a misalignment might be the culprit. In case a machine overheats, it can be very dangerous to those who are working near it; thus, it is important to consistently inspect machinery to check for such issues.

2. Corrosion and Rust — Rust is a common problem that machine maintenance crews often face. If rust is unnoticed, it could corrode a machine and cause complications over time. While some machine parts are on a regular replacement timetable, corrosion and rust speed up that process and this can cost you a lot of money than what is necessary.

When the crew implements regular machine inspections, be sure to check carefully for any rust, especially during rainy or humid months. You need to ensure that your manufacturing space stays dry and clean. If the building has any leaks, have a facility maintenance crew to seal them to avoid the excess moisture from destroying your machinery.

3. Worn belts — Pulleys and belts take on the brunt of any machine work. Through, belts could crack or even lose their flexibility, thus making the machines run poorly. Popular issues that could speed up belt breakdown include overheating, contamination, and misalignment. These are some of the issues that your machine maintenance team can help resolve if they catch the problems immediately, thus be sure that they carefully inspect your machines’ pulleys and belts frequently.

4. Valve and Pump issues — For a hydraulic system, valves and pumps usually cause issues if not appropriately maintained. Disappointingly, any number of troubles could be causing the valve of pump issues. Water or air can leak into the systems and oil could leak out. Pumps and valves also weaken due to inappropriate cleaning. Additionally, if the pumps themselves are not high-quality, you might have to replace them. You should also include pumps and valves in your routine cleaning and inspection schedule, and bear in mind that problems may require some types of troubleshooting before the maintenance crew reaches the source of the problem.

Prevent Machine Breakdown

The most essential thing you can do for your equipment is to perform a routine inspection, cleaning, and lubrication plan. You can avoid many machine problems by keeping up with such a system. Inspect your machine frequently with smaller checks in between the major inspections if necessary.

In the business of mineral drilling exploration, one needs to have access to drilling rigs for sale in Australia. Drill rigs and the right pieces of equipment for the job is of paramount importance to winning and completing contracts, and eventually earning money.

Buying and the acquisition of a new drill rig is a major decision to make. With that, there is a manifold of variables that need to be taken into account.

The million-dollar question we have here is “Is buying a drill rig sale practical with respect to the current financial standing of my business? Will it help my company rake in more money? Or is it the other way around, costing you more to own as opposed to other options that can get the same job done for less

The vast majority of drill rigs for sale in Australia, in the recent economic downturn, had been remaining idle for some time already.

This is the reason why their important parts and components are pretty easy to cannibalize when necessary so that they can be kept actively working and running.

The drillers then had their rigs fixed without even thinking of investing in new drill rigs. Now that the market has recovered, drilling contractors are involved in making relevant decisions regarding their fleet – if they should work on rebuilding their idle rigs or if they need to buy new ones instead.

Normally, seasoned operations managers know which parts and components of their drill rig equipment are needing replacement soon. They are also able to make a fairly accurate guess as to how much it would cost them to rebuild their fleet drill rigs.

If the overall costs for rebuilding are somehow in close range to how much they need to shell out to buy instead of a brand new drill rig, a full-blown audit would be necessary. Such may include evaluating the spare parts they have on stock, inspecting the drill rigs, and verifying maintenance records.

Doing these measures would give them a fairly accurate cost comparison to how much it would take them to get them working again.

1. Resources

It is not all about the costs alone. There are many other things you need to factor in such as whether the drilling firm has the luxury of time or not, as well as if they have the necessary capabilities and talent to perform an overhaul work on a drill rig which has seated idle for a long time.

An overhaul work may take about 3-4 months to complete. It may also require tooling, facilities and a labor pool of mechanics as well as technical know-how to get them (drill rigs) mobilized for new drilling projects and contracts.

2. Availability

Regardless if you are trying to look for a brand new drill rig or rebuilding an old one, the improving market allows you to anticipate longer lead times. However, if the market is on the low, manufacturing plants are not as preoccupied with building new rigs, inventories are higher, and lead times are reduced.

While the market is continuously improving with an increasing number of contracts, plants would be preoccupying themselves in building more rigs, inventory is lower, and lead times are on the rise.

Ultimately, with respect to the manufacturer, lead times will be varying.

3. New Technology

If you happen to own an older fleet drill rig, the acquisition or the purchase of a brand new one will allow you to productively drill more. It makes sense that newer rigs are more efficient, and are thus more productive.

They provide you with more reliable uptime, and more safety features are squeezed into it compared to older rigs.

With the increased safety requirements for a mine site, a brand new rig will be of substantial help for you to meet those requirements on safety where older rigs would fail to meet, causing the drilling contractor to lose a project or contract award.